Saturday, July 19, 2008

Between the busy summer schedule, sickness, and running out of memory on my computer, I have taken way too long to write a new post! We have been having a great summer, with tons of traveling, friends, family, and swimming! So, here is our past month...

A Pattycake Praise Day...

Anna Lee loves Miss Pattycake. For those of you who don't know who she is, let me fill you in. I know her too well. Miss Pattycake is a lady who makes praise videos for kids. She wears a bright colored dress and hat, and sings very happy songs about praising Jesus. I really do love her music, and I think her songs are fantastic...but it is now burned in my brain. Because Anna Lee loves Miss Pattycake so much, we decided to take her to a live concert when she was in Dallas.

On our way to the concert, we told Anna Lee we were going to see Miss Pattycake. She really had no way of understanding what that meant, so she was very disappointed when we didn't "see Miss Pattycake" in the car on the dvd player. So here she is watching Miss Pattycake on the way to see the "real" Miss Pattycake.

Once the concert started, Anna Lee didn't know what to think. She spent the first half or so just like this, in Jim's arms. She couldn't seem to figure out why Miss Pattycake wasn't singing to her from a "ddd". (dvd) .

Halfway through the concert, she got it....and she LOVED it! She said "Pattycake" so many times and jumped right in with all the other kids. She was dancing in the aisles with complete strangers like they were her best friends.

It was so much fun to see her enjoy it so much!

Fun with Friends:

We have had so much fun playing with friends this summer! We have been swimming so many times, and Anna Lee has loved every minute she has gotten to be in the water with friends! Here are a few pictures from a swim party we had with friends from church.

Anna Lee has several kids at church who truly dote over her. She eats it up. MacKenzie is one of those sweet ones who loves on Anna Lee every minute she gets, and Anna Lee loves her right back! In the pool that day, they were taking turns wearing a pair of goggles. It was so sweet.

Several of my sister's good friends live in Dallas and have kids Anna Lee's age. We had a day of fun playing together earlier this month, letting Anna Lee and Ava get to know each other, and getting to love on Mr. Kanyon.

One of the biggest blessings to me of living in Dallas are that some of my closest friends from college live here too. I love the times that we get to spend together and when our kids get to play together...and then when they all take naps and we get to chat! My friend, Hayley, in the next picture, is truly Super Mom. She has a 2 year old and twin 6 month olds. And she handles it all with such grace. Ryan, on the left (who is for some reason very sad in the picture), belongs to my good friend, Julie, who lives very close to us. She and her husband are planting a church and I am so amazed at all they do to share Jesus with others. I have been so thankful to have a friend like Julie living so close to me. Here is a picture of our kids together one day that we all got together to swim. It was the best picture out of the 6 or 7 we took. I loved all the swim babies all lined up together!

Fun with Family:

Each year around the 4th of July, my grandmother's side of the family has their reunion in Abilene. Here is a picture of our line of the family at the reunion. It was so good to all be together, and especially to get to be with my grandmother.

Anna Lee fell in love with my cousin, Catherine, while we were there.Anna Lee later loved getting to be with Catherine's son, Clay. He is so sweet to Anna Lee, and even brought her this new orange hat and a new purse (that she carries everywhere now). Clay was the ring bearer in our wedding, and has gotten so old so fast!

Happy Late 4th of July!

We spent 4th of July weekend in Waco with Jim's parents. It was such a wonderful, relaxing day of swimming and even a movie at the theater for Jim and me... and an evening at Cracker Barrell to end it just right!

My sister, Kara has been living in Spain for a year, as I have written about before. She came home for a week from Spain, and moved the next week to Central America! She is now working for a non-profit organization called Samaritan's Purse, and is getting to do some great things in Honduras. We got some great visiting time in with Kara while she was home, and Anna Lee loved getting to be with her. Anna Lee and Kara have spent most of their time together talking over Skype on the computer, so it is always fun when they get to spend time in person!

Making music together...

All the girls together

Aunt Kasey has been a constant favorite this summer. We love when Kasey is out of school! We play, shop, eat, swim, watch movies, the list can go on and on! We have had so much fun this summer with her! We will miss her when school starts again!

So that's our past month in a nutshell...and to top it off, we are now almost potty trained!